• What the Deuce

Another hurdle cleared

Elena Baltacha has made a steady ascent up the rankings © Getty Images

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Following Britain's Davis Cup humiliation at the hands of sporting minnows Lithuania, British tennis may appear to be dying a slow and painful death, but away from the spotlight, Elena Baltacha is quietly getting on with the job of winning.

The daughter of former Ipswich Town defender Sergei, Baltacha has endured a debilitating back injury and liver disease, but has emerged stronger, and after a period of consistent and occasionally outstanding results, has slowly but surely climbed to 65 in the world rankings.

After beating fellow Brit Katie O'Brien to win the ITF title in Shrewsbury in September last year, Baltacha broke into the top 100 for the first time. But for her, it was not a momentous milestone to be celebrated, merely a hurdle successfully cleared. "The top-100 barrier has been in my head for a while but I've tried to put it to the back of my mind and just keep playing," she said after the victory. "Now I feel like there's a monkey off my back."

Baltacha enjoyed an impressive showing at the Australian Open, including a dominant victory over world No. 32 Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round, before coming up against world No. 2 Dinara Safina, a hurdle just that little too high.

She may have fallen at that particular hurdle, but she picked herself up and just two weeks later in recovered from losing the first set to beat top seed Lucie Hradecka 5-7 6-2 6-3 to claim the ITF Midland title in Michigan to see her rise 13 places to 70th in the world rankings.

Her purple patch continued, reaching the quarter-finals of the WTA event in Memphis where she lost to former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova to see her move up to 64th in the rankings.

At Indian Wells, Baltacha was top seed in qualifying, but needed all three sets to scrape past American Julia Boserup, ranked more than 500 places below her. She managed to raise her game for her second qualifying match against Ekaterina Bychkova to reach the main draw unscathed.

After making it through her first-round match against Alexa Glatch without too much trouble, Baltacha was up against Australian Open semi-finalist Li Na, who she lost to in straight sets in the first round of Eastbourne last year. She pulled off a stunning victory to knock the seventh seed 7-6(8) 2-6 7-6(7) out of the Masters event and recorded her first victory over a top-ten player.

Undoubtedly the biggest win of Baltacha's career so far, it was also the biggest victory in British women's tennis in over a decade. The last time a British woman beat a top-ten player was Sam Smith in 1998, who beat the then world No. 7 Conchita Martinez in the third round of Wimbledon.

Baltacha has worked with her coach Nino Severino on mental strength as well as physical training © Getty Images

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Baltacha has come through a catalogue of injuries and illnesses and adversity, and after surgery on a prolapsed disk in 2006, Baltacha struggled to find any real consistency and came close to calling it a day.

But the Ukrainian-born Scot looks to have put the troubles of the past behind her, and it's not just the fact that she's injury free. Baltacha is mentally stronger, too.

Trailing 5-1 in the deciding tie-break against Na Li, two points away from crashing out of Indian Wells, Baltacha turned it around to win the tie-break 7-5 and win the match.

"7-6, 2-6, 7-6, a Rocky vs Apollo moment, 5-1 down in the 3rd set TB, she made the almost impossible happen. It was simply AWESOME," her coach Nino Severino wrote on Twitter.

Severino has spent a lot of time with Baltacha working on what he calls 'mindsportennis', using techniques such as visualisation to hone her mental skills.

"If elite coaching has taught me anything it is the fact that an athlete can perfect every area of their craft but if they do not prepare their minds, the whole objective of winning can be difficult to say the least," said Severino at the end of last season.

And it seems to have paid dividends. Baltacha is physically stronger, mentally tougher and determined to continue her rise up the rankings.

"When I was a young tennis player so many people talked about the potential I had," said Baltacha ahead of Indian Wells. "For the very first time in my career I have the confidence in my tennis to finally believe and accept they were right. With a little bit of luck, mountains of hard work, commitment, blood, sweat and tears, I believe I can join, compete and battle with the world's top players."

With two third-round sorties at major tournaments and an ITF title to her name already this season, Baltacha has another record of Smith's firmly in her sights. The former British No. 1 reached a career high ranking of 55 in 1999, and Baltacha will be looking to to clear another hurdle and battle on.

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